An approach is provided for classifying one or more vehicles based on their level of automation. The approach involves determining training sensor data collected during at least one driving operation of one or more vehicles, wherein one or more automation levels of the one or more vehicles are known. The approach also involves determining one or more sensor signatures for the one or more automation levels based, at least in part, on one or more values of one or more classification features extracted from the training sensor data. The approach further involves causing, at least in part, a classification of one or more other vehicles according to the one or more automation levels based, at least in part, on the one or more sensor signatures and sensor data associated with the one or more other vehicles.